


There Are Two Of Me And I'm The Only One At Home

by sweetNsimple



Series: Short Marvel Stories That I Didn't Feel Like Making Longer [3]
Category: Captain America (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Losers (2010)
Genre: Alpha Bucky Barnes, Alpha Carlos "Cougar" Alvarez, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alpha/Omega, Crossover, M/M, Omega Jake Jensen, Omega Steve Rogers, Steve Rogers & Jake Jensen, Steve Rogers and Jake Jensen Are Twins, pre-avengers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-17
Updated: 2014-06-17
Packaged: 2018-02-05 00:37:55
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,937
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1799071
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sweetNsimple/pseuds/sweetNsimple
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jake remembered his momma taking his hand, putting it in Steve's, telling him that this was how they came into the world – together, hand in hand, and completely calm.  And then the nurses had separated them.  That was when the trouble had begun.</p>
            </blockquote>





	There Are Two Of Me And I'm The Only One At Home

Jake remembered his momma taking his hand, putting it in Steve's, telling him that this was how they came into the world – together, hand in hand, and completely calm. And then the nurses had separated them. That was when the trouble had begun.

 

Steve was smaller than Jake. Steve was smaller than most people, truth be told. But he was especially smaller than Jake, who was naturally athletic and big, loud-mouthed and cockily intelligent. Jake got into a lot of fights, mostly because he wouldn't shut his trap when it would have been good for him. He won most of them too, because it was good for him to.

 

Steve was bones and skin, asthma attacks and lung infections, heart problems and high blood pressure. Steve was at Death's door ten months out of the year, and he was the bravest bastard Jake knew. Steve was tactical and quick, sharp-minded and careful, righteous and loyal. He was the mutt that followed you home after you gave it a crust of bread and defended you from your shitty dad.

 

Compared to him, Jake never felt so big. He was healthy and strong, but that didn't mean much when he couldn't give it up for Steve. When they met Bucky at Hell's Kitchen, it was pretty much a Godsend for him. Or, well, them. Jake sometimes felt like Bucky was there to answer his prayers alone, someone that didn't draw trouble like Jake did, but was still big enough to keep Steve safe.

 

They left Hell's Kitchen together, and it wasn't so bad for awhile.

 

Not till his and Steve's first Heat, anyway. They happened at the same time and neither of them could work for the day. And Bucky? Bucky was an alpha. Jake trusted him, but he wasn't taking any chances. He scraped his savings together and told Bucky to find somewhere else to be for the next three days.

 

Problem was, Bucky came back with food and water. He cared and fed for them without taking advantage of them. They were weak and wet, but they weren't beggars and they weren't any dumber for being hot under the collar. Jake had to admit, he came out of that Heat with a lot of respect for Bucky when the guy proved he didn't lose any control just because he was an Alpha near Omegas in Heat.

 

Which, not to – okay, definitely – accuse anyone of anything, but... All those Alphas that said they couldn't stop themselves from taking advantage of “needy little Omegas” needed some solid dick and a good kick in the nutsack and knot.

 

Bucky came to him to ask if he could date Steve. And, yeah, that was pretty cool of him too. No one ever asked the Omega to date another Omega. Jake told him yes, and he never did regret that decision. Watching those two together, falling in love, becoming just as close as Jake and Steve, did something to him. Wasn't even jealousy or loneliness. He loved them for being in love. Especially in those rough times, where it was shit to keep a roof over their heads and food in their bellies at the same time. They couldn't have a pup, not with what they had and how Steve's health was, but, sometimes, Jake swore Steve had that maternal glow anyway, like he was heavy with his love and pure devotion for Bucky.

 

It was great. Till it wasn't.

 

What happened? War happened. Bucky signed up and got in. Steve signed up and didn't get in. Jake didn't sign up and didn't get in because he knew Steve wouldn't, and he wasn't leaving his twin behind, not even for the world. But that meant he had to stay and watch Steve get angrier and angrier, more and more desperate, trying to get to his Alpha any way he could.

 

When Erskine got hold of Steve, Jake was almost happy. It was supposed to be top secret, but they were twins. They came into this world together and they were going out together. That simple. That easy to understand. They went to Basic together. When they went into that secret lab together, they held hands. Jake watched Steve's shirt come off, showing off all his ribs and the concave of his belly, the bones of his arms and the knife-sharp edge of his collarbone. He didn't know what they were going to do to make his twin stronger. Didn't even seem likely.

 

Then it was likely. And it happened. And Steve _changed_.

 

And when Steve changed, they went entertaining, like bitch omegas at a street corner, convincing people to give up their dimes and dollars for a cause they might not even believe in, but they danced really well for their kids and made them feel patriotic and like they should. Jake was Steve's double, because Steve was actually stronger and faster and even a little bigger, but not too much bigger, than him.

 

And then they went fighting, because, really, don't fuck with Bucky. Don't fuck with Steve's Alpha, Steve was big enough to do something about it.

 

And then they went drinking, because they fucked with Bucky and they couldn't get him back. Jake was the only one who could get drunk and he managed to watch Peggy talk Steve back into himself through double vision.

 

And then they were falling, because when Steve jumped on that plane, Jake went with him. When they were heading towards the white, white _ice_ , Jake reached out and took Steve's hand, squeezing it.

 

“You might actually live this,” he told Steve.

 

“Not without you and Bucky,” Steve swore. His grip was almost crushing. “I've never had to do anything alone.”

 

“Yeah?” Jake joked, reaching for that mouth that always got him in trouble. “Imagine that, me neither.”

 

They laughed. And then everything went dark.

 

~::~

 

He woke up, and Steve was leaning over him. Steve smiled shakily down at him.

 

“Hey,” he whispered, his hand in Jake's searingly hot. Jake felt cold all over, inside and out, groggy and out of place, and the beating of his heart sounded incredibly loud and felt desperately hard behind his ribs.

 

“Hey,” Jake croaked back. He looked around them. It was a white hospital room with a stall curtain separating them from the rest of the world. He was laying down on a sterile cot and Steve was in a plastic chair. “Who the Hell ran me over and did you kick their ass?”

 

Steve's expression shuddered. “Yeah. Yeah, I think I did. What's the last thing you remember?”

 

Jake blinked slowly and thought back. Slowly, he recounted, “We're with the USO Circuit still, aren't we?”

 

Steve sucked in a deep breath. “Not really.”

 

And then he told Jake the truth. When Jake didn't believe him, he pulled back the curtain.

 

There were machines tracking his heartbeat, doctors walking around with computers so small, they fit in their hands. Steve even told him that some of the people Jake thought were nurses because they were Omegas were actually doctors.

 

Jake wasn't sure about seventy years, but time had gone by.

 

And Bucky wasn't there. He managed to push that back, telling himself he'd probably already faced it.

 

He felt more at home than ever when a doctor put this thing called an iPad in his hands and showed him how to use it. He took it apart while Steve was still talking and looked at its insides. The doctor came back, saw what he had done, and laughed. Steve paused long enough for the doctor to suggest, “Would you like to go to R&D?”

 

He did. Steve came with him. They showed him a laptop and its defenses and what it could do. Then they let him use it. He found out about Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, Google, Yahoo, Gmail, porn, Chrome, graphics displays, sound adjustments, internet connections, .Gifs, and computer hacking in a half hour.

 

“Steve,” he asked as the doctor ogled him. “How am I alive?”

 

Steve shook his head. “I don't know. Maybe we're tied together.”

 

“Yeah, well, I _knew_ that,” Jake said.

 

Steve smiled. “You asked.”

 

“It's ace, though,” Jake told him. “We'll get through this like everything else.”

 

Together.

 

Because, behind it all, Jake was terrified and sad and angry. He didn't know this time or place, but he knew Steve, and Steve had always been enough for him. Always.

 

Then Steve looked down. “There's something else,” he started. And Jake knew this was going to bad.

 

It was worse than he could have imagined.

 

~::~

 

S.H.I.E.L.D. wanted him to join a Special Ops team called the Losers. Away from Steve. That wasn't going over well, till it was.

 

They asked him to meet with Clay, who would be his commanding officer _if_ he decided to join. The scruffy man plopped down across the table from him with rippling grace at the diner and opened up with, “I've never heard of S.H.I.E.L.D. till yesterday, but they say you're one of the best hackers in the Army. I expect you to prove it.” And he'd looked Jake in the eye and didn't mention once that Jake was an Omega or made him feel defensive about being one.

 

He liked Clay. Not enough to leave Steve for, but enough that he agreed to a trial period. And then he met Roque, Pooch,...

 

And Cougar.

 

Cougar was a small Alpha, quiet too, and one of the most deadly forces Jake had ever come up against.

 

When Jake shook hands with him, when Jake looked into those incredibly dark, deep eyes, he became aware, for the first time ever, that he'd never shared a Heat with anyone. That the sex he'd had had been outside of the Heats.

 

He wanted Cougar to take care of him during his Heats, like Bucky had taken care of Steve. He wanted that like a burning in his gut.

 

He must have carried that starstruck, wanting look back with him, because Steve forged his signature on the deployment papers and had his stuff packed by morning. They held on tight to each other. This would be the longest they would ever be apart from each other.

 

It was almost too much just by the time Jake walked out the door.

 

~::~

 

By the thirteenth, “Pretty blonde Omega,” Jake decided it was time for a makeover. So he went to a hairstylist who had a blue faux hawk and told her to do something with his hair.

 

She did. She dyed it dirty blonde, almost brown, bleached and spiked the tips, and then trimmed the beard he had been growing to make people stop calling him a boy. It looked pretty weird, but a good weird. He traded in his old man clothes for something eccentric and colorful, something attention-grabbing and irritating as Hell, because he wanted anyone who looked his way long enough to want to hit him so that he could hit them back.

 

Cougar didn't seem to mind, and that was amazing.

 

He took pictures and sent them to Steve. Steve called him, concerned and wailing, until Jake started laughing at him. Steve growled, “Jerk,” and then laughed at Jake because he looked ridiculous.

 

Roque threatened to shank him if he didn't change back, but Jake was coming to understand that Roque just had a knife fixation, so he didn't do anything about it.

 

Pooch just shook his head and looked like he was in pain.

 

Clay snorted and kept on doing business.

 

“I don't know, I like it,” Jake defended himself. “What do you think I should wear, Cougs?”

 

Cougar blinked at him, looked him down and up, put his mouth right next to Jake's ear, and growled, “ _Nada_.” Then he walked away, like nothing had happened.

 

His Heat came along and he sneaked into Cougar's bed. He didn't think about the other Alphas in the house. Wasn't really on his mind, just the feel of Cougar's rough hands sliding over his skin, the heavy weight of the need and want in his eyes, the hot, wet press of his mouth against his skin.

 

When Roque broke down the door, smirking viciously and growling about how it was about damn time to put Jake in his place, Jake was up and decking him before Cougar could even get defensive.

 

Heats made his limbs feel like jelly, but he'd learned how to work around it. In the places he had lived, the places he had worked, he'd learned damn quick how to stop Alphas from forcing themselves on him, no matter his state of being or mind. He kicked Roque's useless ass right back out the door and yelled at him to stand the fuck down because he wasn't taking his dick or his shit.

 

Then the door slammed shut without him doing it and Cougar was kicking his feet apart far enough that he could grab his hips with one hand and impale him on his dick with the other. “ _M_ _í_ _o_ ,” he snarled, and Jake grabbed hold of the door and held on as Cougar staked his claim inside his body.

 

It was sometime after that that he vaguely heard everyone else leave.

 

They eventually made it back to the bed. Made it to the other three walls. Made it to the shower. When Cougar made a daring food run to the kitchen, he dragged Jake with him and fed him orange slices and grapes, an apple and cheese chunks, things with high water content and good flavor. Then he licked into his mouth, found all those flavors, and enjoyed them with him, pushing him against the island counter and sliding carefully back into his body.

 

Jake gasped and groaned and cursed, hands tight on Cougar's upper arms, legs around Cougar's waist. He looked from where their bodies met up to Cougar's eyes and drowned in the care and heat he found there.

 

It wasn't love, not really, but it was something that felt intimately close, that was both the knowledge that they would kill for each other and protect one another as friends and teammates.

 

They laid down on the linoleum, trying not to jostle Cougar's knot too much. The floor was bitingly chilly against Jake's sweaty skin and he started to shiver.

 

“I hate the cold,” he told Cougar in confidence.

 

Cougar wrapped him up in his arms and, though he was smaller, he was still as hot as a day in the Sahara Desert, and that made it a little better. A little more bearable. After they made their way back up to their bedroom, Cougar hijacked the linen closet and layered Jake in blankets and quilts. It was sweltering by the time he was done and there wasn't an opening for Cougar to slither through and join him, but Jake was comfortable and Cougar was practically purring after taking care of him, so it wasn't all bad.

 

When Jake woke up after the third day, he felt sore, sloppy, and well-used. He stretched and wiggled, enjoying the feeling and finding where all of his pains were. There was some. Bite marks and bruises, inside of him where he had been abused by Cougar's cock and knot and tongue and fingers. His knees and palms ached and burned and there were whisker marks all over.

 

It was great. He could barely wait for his next Heat.

 

~::~

 

He told Steve about Cougar. He could almost see Steve's broken heart over the line, but he didn't bring attention to it, just like Steve didn't. Steve only said, “That's great, I'm glad. It's, it's a really good thing to enjoy with someone you trust.”

 

Jake, in his mind, could see Steve's one scar, the only scar on his body that survived Project Rebirth. It was an inch beneath his ear, towards his nape, over the thickest chord of muscle. It was a mangled, ugly looking scar that every Bonded Omega in the world had, that place where their Alpha had sank their teeth into their swollen Bonding Gland while they were in Heat and claimed them.

 

Jake was intimately aware of his Bonding Gland through several Heats with Cougar, of what that meant and what it would do. It wouldn't change him, not really. It would be forever, because the Bonding Gland never healed, but it wouldn't mean that the relationship had to be forever. Omegas could get cosmetic surgery these days, remove the Bonding Gland and gloss over the scars.

 

Jake ran his fingers through Cougar's hair, fisted it at the back of his skull, just to hear Cougar growl at him and nip his collarbone. Cougar never went anywhere near his Bonding Gland.

 

Jake was happy about that. Mostly.

 

~::~

 

Bolivia was the end. Not of them or their lives, not like he could see everyone thought in that moment they stood in front of the burning debris of the helicopter, the smoldering remains of the children and the soldiers. It was the end of their lives as they knew it.

 

He crouched down and snuffled into Cougar's neck where the man had fallen to his knees. Only for a moment, and then he was back on his feet and helping Cougar to stand with him. They threw their tags into the fire.

 

“'Cause S.H.I.E.L.D. was a real big fuckin' help, wasn't it?” Roque snarled. He looked ready to throw Jake on the ground and strangle him.

 

Jake met him, eye to eye. “They will be, trust me.”

 

And Jake waited.

 

He didn't wait long.

 

~::~

 

They weren't even to the nearest city when another helicopter circled around them. Roque and Pooch dove for the trees. Cougar ran to climb up one, rifle slung over his back. Clay stood still, looking up at the helicopter, face hard and set like he was going to take on whatever came out with fists and teeth and self-sacrificing fury.

 

He only looked more somber when he read the S.H.I.E.L.D. logo on the side.

 

Jake stood next to him, hands in his pockets, even though he could practically feel Cougar glaring at him to get low and out of the way.

 

Everything stopped when a rope ladder came down and Steve Grant Rogers hit the ground, dressed in civilian clothing.

 

“Jake! What the Hell happened?” he called, rushing towards him at a fast jog.

 

Clay turned towards him, eyebrows pulled together. From the treeline, Jake heard Pooch say, “The Hell?” at the same time Roque cursed, “What the fuck?”.

 

“Anything you'd like to tell us?” Clay asked him.

 

Jake looked his commanding officer in the eye. “I have a twin brother. He's Captain America.”

 

~::~

 

They didn't believe him, but it was pretty impossible to not believe that Steve and Jake were twins. It took a lot of coaxing to get everyone out of hiding all the same, and it took Cougar following Jake up into the helicopter for everyone else to follow after.

 

The helicopter went over the Pacific Ocean, right towards the edge of the Earth if there was a place for it. Roque was watching him and Steve, sharpening his biggest knife, eyes cold and angry. Pooch was staring out, down towards the ocean, arms crossed and fists white-knuckled. Cougar was quiet and not looking anywhere on Jake's other side, quietly comforting and terrifying.

 

Jake knew this looked bad. A mission went FUBAR, they were supposed to go down in twisted metal and fire, and then the twin none of them knew about came to their rescue from a top secret agency they knew he was associated with, but didn't know anything else about.

 

Clay was just staring at him, leaning forward, waiting. Jake looked back because, honestly? The only thing he had to feel bad about were the lies, and there weren't that many, and they didn't know all of them. He was a great hacker. Not as great as it had been made to sound, but he'd leaned to be under Clay's command. He actually was a Captain in the Army and he did have a sister and niece through S.H.I.E.L.D.'s relocation program for secret and non-existing agents.

 

They were just pissed because they hadn't known about Steve.

 

“DUMPING OUR ASSES IN THE MIDDLE OF THE OCEAN?” Roque yelled.

 

Steve shook his head and motioned for him to wait. Which Roque did not like _at all_ , but, when he went to stand and come at him, the pilot dipped and made a sharp turn.

 

He heard the pilot say over Steve's earpiece, “Not while I'm here,” and Steve almost smiled.

 

It wasn't long after that before the helicopter uplifted suddenly, and then they were above the helicarrier.

 

Pooch yelled loud enough that Jake could hear him over the spinning blades and Roque nearly jumped out the opposite side of the helicopter. He startled when a hand grabbed his wrist in an almost painfully tight grip, and then felt his heart go wild when he realized it was Cougar, wary of the helicarrier and still willing to drag Jake into the ocean with him if he thought it would be safer.

 

It wouldn't be, not from this height, probably not from any height considering how far away they were from land, but it was the thought that counted, that Cougar still wanted to protect him. He couldn't help but smile.

 

He stopped when he saw Steve staring fixedly where Cougar's hand was. It wasn't anger or fear on his face, but painful loneliness and bleeding love. Steve blinked quickly and looked away.

 

“SO,” Clay yelled, not looking away from the immense floating structure as if he believed it would become invisible again if he did. “THIS IS S.H.I.E.L.D. HEADQUARTERS?”

 

Jake was a bit startled himself. He looked at Steve. Steve just nodded. “YEAH. IT IS.”

 

Nick Fury was on deck when they landed, hands folded behind his back, legs braced apart.

 

“Losers!” he barked as soon as they were away from the helicopter. “I am Col. Nicholas Fury, Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., and this is my helicarrier. These are my people. You are not prisoners, you will not be treated as if you are. All I ask is that you don't try to fight your way out of here. You will be stopped and you will be put down. We are not the bad guys here. We,” he nodded his head at Clay, “are trying to help you.” Then, pointedly without looking at Jake, “Again.”

 

Clay gave a bitter smile. “Again. What do you get out of all this?”

 

“We get to take down the head of a corrupt agency that has been dealing with Doomsday devices, terrra-safe bombs, and Stark weapons.”

 

“I see... So, when Jensen was assigned to us by you, was this the gameplan?”

 

He knew this was coming.

 

“Jakob J. Rogers,” Fury introduced fully, “was given the choice to join your team as _protection_. No one was supposed to fuck with you while he was assigned under you. Clearly, that didn't work out as planned.”

 

Pooch snorted, angry and destroyed. “ _Clearly_.”

 

Fury looked at him. “We can get you your lives back. We've already stopped various media leaks blaming you or linking you to the Bolivia incident.”

 

“ _Incident_? That wasn't no fucking incident, that shit was planned!” Roque roared. He went deep into Fury's space. “People. Fucking. Died.”

 

Fury looked him in the eye and said, “The Bolivia incident is, as of the moment, under wraps. We can't keep it there, but we have some hope we can pretty it up before it gets out. You can either be blamed for it, or have no part in it. It all depends on how you help us.”

 

“Because we're not prisoners here, right?” Pooch drawled sarcastically.

 

“You're not,” Fury said. “You have the right to get the fuck off my helicarrier any way you like. I'll even lend you something that flies. Everything that happens after that? That's on you. The only thing you'll get from this is the experience of meeting Captain America and his stunt double.”

 

“Hey!” Jake cried out, even as everyone whipped around to look at him. “I resent that.”

 

“That wasn't a joke?” Clay asked.

 

“No, that was not a joke,” Jake said. “My twin brother really is Captain America. It's Hell, trying to live up to him.”

 

“Try nothing,” Steve huffed. He wrapped Jake up in a strong hug. “I learned to take a beating from you.”

 

“Don't blame your bad habits on me, you'd have them even if I wasn't here.” But he grabbed on and held on anyway because twenty-five children and four men had just died in the sky in a fiery explosion and there hadn't bee anything they could do.

 

“How the Hell are they alive?” he heard Clay ask Fury.

 

“Dumb luck,” was the answer. “And surprise cryonic suspension.”

 

“Cryonic suspension?” Roque asked.

 

“Frozen,” Pooch clarified. Followed immediately by, “How is that a surprise?”

 

“Because we didn't think we'd ever wake up again,” Jake joked. Or he tried to make it sound like a joke. But the memory took him somewhere, not quite on the helicarrier, and it was cold and he was afraid.

 

Steve went to pull him back in, but someone else cursed, “ _Mierda_ ,” and Cougar was there, dragging him away, pulling him in close. Jake went with it, wouldn't fight it even if he had to, and reveled in Cougar's desert heat.

 

“Hold on, hold on!” Roque jabbed his knife in Jake's direction. “Let's stop that shit right now.”

 

Steve crossed his arms and stood up a little straighter. He shifted just enough to stand between them and Roque. “Excuse you, son?”

 

“I am not your goddamned son, I don't care when you were born and I don't give two flyin' fucks who you are. That shit, right there.” He jabbed his finger at Jake and snarled at Cougar, “This bitch Omega's been playing us and you're just going to keep sucking on his dick like nothing's wrong?”

 

Cougar gave him a stony look. “ _Mio_ did nothing wrong.”

 

Jake all but went limp because, wow, he was _Cougar's_ , and that had to mean Cougar wasn't as angry at him as everyone else.

 

“It wasn't Rogers' job to play any of you,” Fury snapped. “You were all told that he was being lent to you from this agency. His real identity was above your clearance level and, honestly? We didn't owe you that shit.”

 

“Besides,” Jake said. “If I was playing you guys, wouldn't I sleep with the commanding officer? I mean, let's be honest here, Clay, you'd do just about anything for tail.”

 

Clay shuffled on his feet. “You're not my type.”

 

“Anyone's your type if they're batshit crazy enough and Omega,” Jake countered.

 

“Everyone knows about the car bomb, you dumb shit,” Fury snapped. “Get your asses inside and let's wrap this up so we can get shit done.”

 

~::~

 

It was later, much later, after rooms had been assigned and Steve and Jake had caught up in private, that Cougar found him, slinking out of the crevices of the helicarrier to push him against a wall and look him in the eye.

 

“Jakob Jensen Rogers,” he stated.

 

Jake nodded. “Yeah.”

 

“Jacklyn and Rosie?” Cougar asked.

 

“S.H.I.E.L.D.'s relocation program.” Jake swallowed thickly. “The psych ward thought it was necessary for me. Not so much for Steve.”

 

Cougar cocked his head, a wordless, 'Why?'

 

He sucked in a harsh breath. “Steve is fertile. I'm...” _not_.

 

He'd wanted his own pups for as long as he could remember. Back in the day, being an Omega, it hadn't been that weird. These days, any Omega who wanted to be heavy and walking around the house with swollen ankles were old-fashioned and setting back the Gender movement by three generations. Even when he'd been fighting, even when he'd been working, even when he'd been starving and thinking Steve wasn't going to make the winter, he'd known that, one day, he was having a pup.

 

He wasn't going to have a pup.

 

Cougar pulled him down and kissed the corner of his mouth. “One day,” was all he said, and he pressed the entire length of his body against Jake's, leaving the impression of his muscles and angles against Jake like a tattoo only he could feel and see.

 

Jake gave into him easily. Didn't want to fight him. Cougar hooked his hands in Jake's belt loops and pulled him into his quarters.

 

They spent the entire night against each other, inside each other, around one another, careful and slow, not crying because they'd been raised not to, but still mourning and trying to live in a way that wouldn't hurt them for the night.

 

Jake pressed his lips to Cougar's softly, felt every crack against his own lips, and found Cougar's eyes focused on him, dark and deep and fathomless.

 

“I love you,” Jake said, the first time he had ever said it in the year and a half they had had this relationship.

 

Cougar ducked his head and nuzzled at the spot Jake's Bonding Gland would be if he was in Heat. “Next time,” he said, and Jake cried out at the very thought of Cougar's teeth sinking in and marking him for the rest of his days.

 

It wasn't the same three words Jake had said, but it meant the same thing.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> I love Jake Jensen with all my heart, and I wish he and Steve Rogers were in more stories together. As always, if I'm missing a tag, feel free to tell me. Have a lovely day.


End file.
